Six people have filed to run for the Sarasota County Public Hospital Board, including a pair of North Port Republicans who share the same address at Gran Paradiso in Wellen Park.
On Thursday, three of the six signed up and qualified for the At-Large Seat 1.
On Wednesday, Donna Hurlock applied for At-Large Seat 2, while Curt Erlandson applied for At-Large Seat 3. and qualified on Thursday.
These filings came on the same day that current hospital board member Victor Rohe appeared at the ultra-conservative America First Southwest Florida Caucus meeting and discussed the process required to generally file as a write-in candidate.
Hurlock said she was at Wednesday’s America First rally but did not attribute her decision to file to Rohe’s statement.
“It’s kind of nice to have your name on a ballot,” Hurlock said.
Erlandson could not be reached for comment.
Ethan Garrett, Suzanne Hatatah and Jennifer Lee Zambrano all qualified as candidates for At-Large Seat 1, while Emilio Carlesimo, a former Venice City Council member, qualified as candidates for the Central District Seat 1.
A quest to keep the Republican primaries closed
If only members of one political party wish to run for elected office, the primary race is open to all eligible voters to cast their ballots. If candidates from more than one party or write-in candidates register, the primaries are “closed,” meaning only registered voters from the respective parties participate, while party winners advance to the general election.
Registered candidates do not have to declare their party affiliation and their names will not appear on the Nov. 5 ballot, but voters can write their names in front of the appropriate office.
This year, a total of 18 regular or write-in candidates filed for the four seats up for election this year on the hospital board.
With qualifying ending Friday, there will be GOP primaries for all four seats on August 20.
In November, voters can then choose between the Republican winner of the primary, the Democratic candidate, and one write-in candidate in three of the four races, while for At-Large Seat 1 they can choose the Republican or Democratic candidate or one of the three write-in candidates .
Email prompts a flood of sign-up requests
Rohe told the Herald-Tribune that he received an email about a June 9 story on the Florida Politics website that appeared to spark a flurry of write-in candidates.
“I got this as an email and the first line of the email was that Florida politics is openly calling for the Democrats to withdraw in order to have an open primary,” Rohe said.
Based on that, he chose to address the America First rally.
“I had a feeling that the RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) and the Democrats would like to join forces and defeat us,” he added.
The practice of closing primaries is quite common in Florida politics.
A write-in candidate recently closed out what would otherwise have been a universal primary for the Sarasota County Commission District 1 seat.
Rohe began his remarks by noting that he was not representing any organization — such as the hospital board — nor was he encouraging people to register as candidates.
“I’m not asking anyone to do anything,” Rohe said. “I don’t ask them, all I do is give them information about how the system works.”
The candidate filing deadline for all primary races is noon Friday, so he suggested Thursday was the last day for anyone to register.
“If anyone, anyone, files in the hospital races, one of the four of them – if they file as a write-in vote (sic), which keeps the primary closed,” Rohe said at the meeting. “Why is that so important? On Monday, an email went out – or some other message from someone at a political organization in Florida – that a head of the Democratic Party in that county was suggesting that they should pull all four Democratic candidates from the race so they can have an open have a primary election and vote in our primaries.
“That, in my opinion, is very likely to happen,” he added.
Democrats say they are still in the running for seats on the Sarasota Hospital Board
Columnist Peter Schorsch’s June 9 article on Floridapolitics.com blasted Sarasota County Democratic Party Chairman Danuel Kuether for recruiting four candidates to run in the hospital board race and for soliciting of a battle with Sarasota Tiger Bay on whether Democratic speakers received equal treatment at the luncheon forums, and urging Democratic candidates to boycott Tiger Bay’s current series of forums.
On Wednesday, Kuether said, “I have no intention of pulling the Democratic candidates out of this race.”
That fact was underscored by an email from Kuether on Thursday noting that Vicki Lynn Nighswander, candidate for Central District Seat 1, had officially qualified for that race.
Nighswander ran for the same seat in 2020, losing to incumbent Sarah Lodge.
That was the last time Democrats fielded candidates for the hospital board.
In 2022, Democrats opted to race for five seats on the hospital board and support mainstream Republicans — with candidates from three separate Republican factions vying for office.
In a year of heightened awareness due to the COVID-19 pandemic, three ‘Health Freedom’ candidates, including Rohe, won seats on the volunteer hospital board,
The nine-member public hospital panel sets policy for the Sarasota Memorial Health Care System, which includes all Sarasota Memorial Hospital campuses, related health care facilities and clinics and the First Physicians Group.
Who is running in the Sarasota hospital board elections?
For At-Large Seat 1, incumbent Republican Sharon Wetzler DePeters will face Tamzin Rosenwasser in the primary, while the winner will face Democrat Alan Jerome Sprintz in November, where one of three write-in candidates – Ethan Garrett, Suzanne Hatatah and Jennifer Lee Zambrano – will also be options.
For At Large Seat 2 are Republicans Kevin Cooper and Dr. Stephen Guffanti in the primary, with the winner facing Democrat John A. Lutz and Donna Hurlock being a write-in candidate.
For At-Large Seat 3, Republicans Pam Beitlich and Mary Flynn O’Neill are in the primary, with the winner facing Democrat Dr. George Davis and Curt Erlandson, a write-in candidate.
For Seat 1 in the Central District, incumbent Republican Sarah Lodge will face Tanya Marie Parus in the primary, while the winner will face Democrat Vicki Lynn Nighswander and Emilio Carlesimo as a write-in candidate.
This article originally appeared on the Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Write-ins create a crowded field of candidates for Sarasota hospital board
